Product Warning

Yeah, I know...this is usually Cassie's territory, but I felt I had to tell the story of a product that, while may not be crappy, is definitely not worth the money. The product in question in Kirby vacumn cleaners. Our friend Mindy started a job selling them and is in training. The job is atrocious, as you are to first pimp the product to your friends and family, and then eventually go door to door. I didn't even know people still did door to door sales. So, she wanted to come by and do a demonstration. We said okay of course. I was actually looking to get a new vacumn cleaner as ours has a tiny bag that fills up after just a couple of rooms. She comes over and tells us a little bit about the product. It's an industrial strength vacumn that is supposed to be twice as strong as one you can buy in stores. It looked like an old fashioned vacumn....made of steel. It was pretty complicated to put together and to change attachments. She showed us the specialty filters that are made of surgical grade cloth so particles don't get past it. She vacumned part of the floor and it was obvious that the filter and the vacumn did a good job. The crazy part was that she was supposed to vacumn so much of our house that she used 100 filters. That would take at least 2 hours. I wasn't going to have her vacumn the whole place and take that much time, since she was a friend. If it wasn't someone I knew, I might have them vacumn the whole place. So, I had her cut to the chase. I asked to feel the amount of vacumn that the upholstery attachment pulled. It didn't feel any stronger than my regular vacumn. It also didn't do a good job of cleaning the stairs until she used an attachment that wasn't designed for that purpose (strike 1). We also asked where we could get replacement bags since they were an unusual shape and material. She had to call her boss and ask him. Turns out you can only get the bags online or in their store (strike 2). So, I finally asked her how much they cost. She pulled out a pre-printed "estimate" that would tell you the cost with the trade-in of your old vacumn. After trade-in it was 1700$ (obviously, strike three)! I felt bad, but I literally had to laugh at that. What nut-job would pay 1700 for a vacumn cleaner....besides the seriously obssesive compulsive. She again called her boss...which was awkward for us. He said he could drop that down to 1200. Again, peels of laughter. I told her, "no disrespect, but I was thinking it would be about 500 bucks, no way would I pay that much for a tool that I hate to use anyway." To top it off, Mindy said that everytime she called her boss, he would literally scream at her to make that sale, and that he could pay monkeys with bannanas to do this job. That alone was why I decided to write this post. I don't think anyone should give money to a company that treats its employees that poorly. Other than that, the vacumn was okay....but not worth the price.

Taxi Ettiquette

Okay, this post has been a long time coming. Several weeks ago we took a cab to downtown Columbia to see the battle of the bands at the Eastside Tavern. So, the cabbie picked us up and started driving down the road. He decided not to turn on a street and get on the highway...which was the fastest way. I didn't say anything at that point, but I was pissed. So, a mile up the road out of our way is another chance to get on the highway. I figured he was going to screw us a little by taking the back way to get to the highway. So, I expected him to take his next chance and get on 70. As we neared the intersection, it was apparant that he had no intention of getting on the highway at all. Instead, it looked like he was going to take us 10 minutes out of our way to get to where we were going. At this point I was really pissed and exclaimed "Dude, take 70!" He almost missed his chance to take the highway. After that, I wasn't going to take any chances, so I told him exactly what route I wanted to take to get to the bar (which is the shortest/fastest). The point of all this is....has anyone else been in a situation like that and, if so, what is the proper ettiquette? I was outraged that he was taking us for idiots that don't know where we are going. So, do you call the dispatcher on him? Not tip him? Yell at him for taking advantage of you? Is it appropriate to tell the driver that he's taking a shitty route? I ended up letting him keep the change, which ended up being about a buck. Hopefully he got the hint, but in retrospect I wish I would've been more vocal about the poor treatment. We used another cab company to get back home that was both cheaper and faster.

This one's for the Simpsons lover in all of us...literally

Who knew Lisa Simpson was such a little dirty slut. My, oh my....world's going to hell in a handbasket.